Online shopping in the United States was forecast to grow by leaps and bounds this holiday season, and early indications suggest the growth in Internet retailing is meeting those expectations.
Research firm Jupiter Communications forecast that online shoppers will spend US$2.3 billion during the holiday season this year, up from $1.1 billion last year.
"There's an enormous run-up in traffic going to shopping sites," said Bob Ivins, a senior vice president at Media Metrix, which has been tracking online shopping trends.
On Wednesday, America Online said holiday visits to its shopping channel surged 350 percent over last year, with 750,000 members moving from shopping to buying online for the first time.
A Media Metrix study released this week found that online shopping rose nearly 80 percent during the week of 4-10 December, compared to the previous week. The study found that department store Web sites had the biggest week-to-week increase, but traffic remained heavy at toy sites as well. Books, music, movies, and specialty clothing stores were also popular.
"Everyone we talk to is reporting record-breaking traffic," said Andy Sernovitz, who runs the Association for Interactive Media. "What's interesting is that everyone we're talking to is reporting a record number of new customers -- people who never shopped online before this year are buying one or two items."
He said that defining how much traffic translates into actual sales is nearly impossible.
Richard Gordon, founder and chairman of the Electronic Commerce Association, compared growth in Internet commerce to getting on a high-speed elevator and going from the first floor to the 30th floor in seconds -- as opposed to "escalator fashion," a slower, more steady increase.
"December 1998 will mark, in my opinion, the first significant elevator event because we will see people become so much more familiar with this method [of shopping]", he said.
Copyright© 1998 Reuters Limited.
